Toothbrushes with self-dispensing toothpaste chambers have been suggested that combine the toothbrush and toothpaste container into one object. This eliminates the need for the user to carry both a toothbrush and toothpaste container and enables the user to conveniently brush wherever a water supply is available. Previous designs, however, do not lend themselves to versatility whereby a variety of different styled toothbrushes can be constructed using interchangeable parts. Patents that describe travel-ready, self-dispensing toothbrushes as finished products are not intended to be used as subassemblies or components. Therefore, the nature of those designs differs from this patent, which is used as a building block for constructing various finished toothbrush designs.
Several patents relating to travel-ready, self-dispensing toothbrushes are described below. One of the most popular travel ready, self-dispensing toothbrush is described in U.S. Re. Pat. No. 6,142,694. The invention describes a finished toothbrush and not a subassembly. In addition, the functionality of this toothbrush has several drawbacks. First is the fact that the toothbrush is disposable and not refillable. The user is not able to choose the brand of toothpaste used. In addition, the disposable nature necessitates the use of lower quality, low usage bristles. Another drawback is that this toothbrush is prone to water leakage and does not lend itself to being carried in the pocket of an expensive garment, handbag, or computer case without a watertight container. Another drawback is that that toothbrush is not appealing to the discretionary user.
There are two fundamental problems with prior art designs. First the dispensing portion of the toothbrush assembly is not designed to be disassembled. Toothpaste is a material that has different qualities and with time may tend to clog or get too rigid to be properly dispensed. A workable dispensing toothbrush assembly needs to be designed so that it can be disassembled for cleaning. Secondly, the chamber that holds the toothpaste also holds the elements that are used to facilitate loading toothpaste into the chamber and dispensing toothpaste from the chamber. Prior art designs did not isolate the toothpaste holding chamber from the elements that dispensed the toothpaste. For example, most designs have a threaded shaft that extends into the toothpaste and also engages threads in the element used to push toothpaste from the chamber. This threaded shaft may get contaminated with material that gets transferred to the toothpaste.
There is, therefore, a need for a toothbrush assembly comprising a threaded toothbrush head section, a delivery tube integral to the threaded toothbrush head section for delivering toothpaste to the top of the toothbrush bristles, and a chamber section operable for storing toothpaste and selectively receiving toothpaste from a toothpaste tube and delivering the toothpaste to the toothbrush bristles or back to the toothpaste tube. The toothbrush assembly needs to be made of component parts such that the chamber section can be disassembled for cleaning.